Jones Bar-B-Q Diner

The smoking business was first started by the current owner's grandfather's uncle, Joe.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arkansas.com/media-room/media-kit/jones-bar-b-que-diner-arkansass-only-james-beard-award-winner|title=Jones Bar-B-Que Diner: Arkansas's Only James Beard Award Winner {{!}} Arkansas.com|website=www.arkansas.com|access-date=August 25, 2019}} The exact year it opened is disputed; Garden & Gun specified 1910 when naming it to their Barbecue Bucket List.{{Cite web|url=https://gardenandgun.com/articles/barbecue-bucket-list|title=The Barbecue Bucket List|date=June 26, 2015|website=Garden & Gun|language=en-US|access-date=August 25, 2019}} The Beard Foundation said it had been open "since at least the 1910s." According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, it "is perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Arkansas, as well as perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the South owned by a black family."{{cite web |title=Jones Bar-B-Q Diner |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=8032 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |access-date=9 February 2019}} According to Oxford American, it is "the oldest black-owned restaurant in the South, and, perhaps, one of the oldest family-owned black restaurants in the nation." According to business guide Black Business, it is "believed to be the oldest black-owned restaurant in the country."{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackbusiness.com/2018/06/jones-bar-b-q-diner-oldest-black-owned-restaurant-marianna-arkansas.html|title=The Oldest Black-Owned Restaurant in the U.S. – In Business For More Than 100 Years!|date=June 5, 2018|website=Black Business|access-date=August 25, 2019}} According to Southern Foodways Alliance, "there are some people who believe it's the oldest continually operated African American-owned restaurant in the South."{{Cite web|url=https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/southern-bbq-trail/arkansas-bbq/|title=Arkansas BBQ|date=2010-02-22|website=Southern Foodways Alliance|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-25}} According to The Chicago Tribune, "Food historians say it may be one of the nation’s oldest restaurants owned by an African American family."{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-trav-jones-bar-b-que-arkansas-0901-20190826-5gul7ronbvfapb7n3ktvwtf4ji-story.html|title=It's all about the barbecue at no-frills Arkansas diner with unpredictable hours — and a James Beard Award|last=Bergin|first=Mary|date=August 26, 2019|website=chicagotribune.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=September 10, 2019}}

Joe's nephew, Walter Jones, originally served barbecue on Fridays and Saturdays from the back porch of his dogtrot house.{{Cite web|url=https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2012/03/13/jones-bbq-in-marianna-wins-beard-foundation-honor|title=Jones BBQ in Marianna wins Beard Foundation honor|last=Brantley|first=Max|date=March 13, 2012|website=Arkansas Times|language=en-US|access-date=August 25, 2019}} Walter's son recalled in a 1986 interview that the first pit setup was "a hole in the ground, some iron pipes and a piece of fence wire, and two pieces of tin."{{Cite web|url=http://www.saveur.com/article/Travels/BBQ-Nation/|title=BBQ Nation: The Preservation of a Culinary Art Form by John T. Edge|last=Edge|first=John T|date=May 26, 2011|website=Saveur|language=en|access-date=August 25, 2019}}

The next owner was Walter's son, Hubert Jones. Hubert's son told Saveur that his father's original place was called The Hole in the Wall, because "that's what it was. Just a window in a wall where they sold meat from a washtub."{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/246-in-through-the-back-door|title=In Through The Back Door|last=Edge|first=John T.|date=March 21, 2010|website=www.oxfordamerican.org|language=en-gb|access-date=August 25, 2019}} Hubert moved the business to its current location in 1964 and changed its name to Jones Bar-B-Q.

The next and current owner is Hubert's son, James Jones, and his wife Betty.{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiny-bar-b-q-restaurant-wins-big-food-award/|title=Tiny Bar-B-Q restaurant wins big food award|last1=Strassmann|first1=Mark|date=May 8, 2012|access-date=9 February 2019|publisher=CBS News}} In 2010 James Jones told Oxford American that his son, a local coach, was not planning to continue operating the business.

In 2017 James Jones shared his recipes and permission to use the business name with Kevin Arnold, who opened a Jones Bar-B-Q in Jacksonville, Arkansas, about {{Convert|100|mi}} away.{{Cite web|url=https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2017/03/24/jones-bar-b-q-of-marianna-has-a-related-outpost-in-jacksonville|title=Jones Bar-B-Q of Marianna has a related outpost in Jacksonville|last=Brantley|first=Max|date=March 24, 2017|website=Arkansas Times|language=en-US|access-date=August 25, 2019}}

The Marianna diner is located in a white cinder block two-story shotgun house on a corner lot at 219 West Louisiana Street.[http://www.jamesbeard.org/sites/default/files/static/additional/050712_JBF_WINNERS.pdf Winners] 2012 James Beard Foundation Hubert Jones and his wife lived upstairs when they operated it.

Jones smokes 10 to 12 pork shoulders over oak and hickory in cinder-block pits for at least ten hours three times a week. He simmers the cooked meat in sauce in a slow cooker. The sauce is thin and vinegar-based and contains paprika and cayenne.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/ar/j/jones-bar-b-q-diner|title=Jones Bar-B-Q Diner|website=Food Network|language=en|access-date=August 25, 2019}} The menu offers only chopped pork, either by the pound or as sandwiches on white bread such as Wonder{{Cite web|url=https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/best-bbq-restaurants-in-the-usa|title=The Best Barbecue Joint in Every State|last1=Lynch|first1=Kevin|last2=Alexander|first2=Matt|date=September 23, 2016|website=Thrillist|access-date=August 25, 2019}} or Sunbeam, with or without a mustard-based coleslaw. As of August 2019, sandwiches were US$3.50, a pound of meat US$7.00 and a pint of sauce US$3.00.

The diner opens at 6 a.m. six days a week and closes whenever it sells out, often by 11 a.m. According to The Chicago Tribune, "On a summer Saturday, that could happen before 10 a.m." There are only two tables,{{Cite web|url=https://www.thrillist.com/venues/jones-bar-b-q-diner|title=Jones Bar-B-Q Diner: A Nation, AR Restaurant.|last=Vellner|first=Tom|website=Thrillist|access-date=August 25, 2019}} providing seating for at most ten.

As of 2010 the restaurant offered smoking service to hunters who would bring their catches in.

In 2012 the James Beard Foundation named it one of America's Classics, making it Arkansas' first {{Cite web|last=Brantley|first=Max|date=2020-02-19|title=Lassis Inn recognized as 'classic' by James Beard Foundation|url=https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/02/19/lassis-inn-recognized-as-classic-by-james-beard-foundatoin|access-date=2021-02-28|website=Arkansas Times|language=en-US}} Beard Award winner. According to The Chicago Tribune, University of Mississippi academic John Edge "helped nudge the Beard Foundation" to consider the diner.

In 2017 it was inducted into the inaugural class of the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=http://www.arkansasheritage.com/Food-Hall-of-Fame/current-winners|title=Winners have been announced for the newest class of the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.|website=www.arkansasheritage.com|access-date=August 25, 2019}} In 2019 Food & Wine named it the best barbecue in Arkansas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/best-bbq-restaurants|title=The Best BBQ in Every State 2018|last=Landsel|first=David|date=July 22, 2019|website=Food & Wine|language=en|access-date=August 25, 2019}}

• List of Black-owned restaurants

{{Reflist}}

{{Coord|34.76845|-90.76503|format=dms|display=title|type:landmark_region:US-AR}}

Category:Restaurants in Arkansas

Category:Buildings and structures in Lee County, Arkansas

Category:America's Classics winners

Category:Barbecue restaurants in the United States

Category:Black-owned restaurants in the United States